I never expected it to happen. Never in a million years. But I have finally joined the ranks of "those people" who see things. Dare I say it? Unidentified flying things.

I can't say that it was actually flying. Floating maybe.

Here's how it happened. I had just stepped out on my front porch to pick up the morning paper. I'd already had one cup of coffee--plain coffee--and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. As I rose up with the newspaper in hand, I saw the thing hanging not ten feet above the tree tops in my front yard.

It was big--the size of a water tower, hanging there motionless and silent as the moon. Only it was not the moon. The early morning jogger did not appear interested. The paper boy was not excited. Nobody yelled, "LOOK AT THAT ALIEN SPACE CRAFT!"

I thought it unusual, but the total lack of response from any earthling caused me think it was perhaps some kind of hot air balloon. I went back inside.

Then I thought, this  is really not usual, so I went back outside.

I saw no tether. There was no lettering such as "Eat at Joe's" or "This is the End."
There were no dwarfish, big-eyed gray men waving at me to come aboard and bring a cup of java with cream.

The thing had no lights and no windows. It was shaped like a gigantic garbage can. Now that alone tells you I did not make this up. If I were going to make up such a story, I'd at least describe something that looked like it could fly.

There was yet another oddity about it which was beyond peculiar. I've decided not to mention it, because if I ever meet another person who describes the same thing, I will know at once he is telling the truth.

It was time to grab my news camera which --wouldn't you know it?--was empty of film. Wasn't this what my editor had warned me about? Never have an unloaded camera or you'll miss the shot of the century. I could have sold it to every tabloid and newspaper in the country and made a small fortune.

Dashing downstairs to borrow my daughter's camera, I rummaged through a week's pile of clothing on her dresser and finally located it. By the time I got back to the front porch, the UFO had disappeared, like all good UFOs which are notoriously camera shy. Where could something that large have gone in such a short time?

I jumped in my Jeep and drove to the top of the hill, expecting to see it moving slowly above the neighborhood. Zip. Nada. Nowhere.

I called the local airport to ask if they had any huge weather balloons on the loose. They did not.  

The event left me curious, educated as I was in the university thought that intelligent life does not exist on other planets. So I decided to do a little research. I wanted to brush up in case Larry King invited me to be on his talk show. He's interviewed UFO witnesses several times.

UFO sighting is not a modern phenomenon.
As early as 1504 to 1450 B.C., a historian writing on an Egyptian Papyrus in the annals of Thutmose III described seeing "circles of fire in the sky, shining more brightly than the sun." The entire army of Pharaoh looked on and witnessed these mysterious lights ascending higher in the sky and moving toward the south.

The ancient Nazca line drawings in Peru are so large the figures can only be seen from the air, yet air travel was thousands of years in the future. Some people attribute their very existence to aliens, just as they ascribe the pyramids to advanced intelligence.

I think we do the ancients a disservice by assuming they could not create their architectural wonders without help from advanced technology (meaning aliens). People have always been resourceful, no less ingenious in the past than the present. I visited the Mediterranean in 2005 and saw a statue in Ephesus carved by a Roman some 2700 years ago. The intelligent figure was holding a globe on which was a map of the ancient world. Obviously, old Columbus was not the first to be convinced the world is not flat.

That brings me back to the question, what did I see?

I decided to visit an Aerial Phenomenon Research Organization (APRO) meeting near Byron, Illinois. The scheduled speaker was Dr. Karyn K. Mitchell, Ph. D. Her subject was how to counsel people who think they've been abducted by aliens. Not that I was ever abducted. She would explain such delusions rationally, it would make a great feature article, and my world would get back to normal (whatever that is).

The woman looked very professional, confident and self assured sitting there. The attendees did not appear to be traumatized from their time aboard alien craft. I felt reassured.

The psychologist began her presentation with the words, “I am Dr. Mitchell, and I am an abductee.”

That's when I was astounded.

Harriet Ford is a veteran news reporter, formerly a high school English teacher, and a longtime leader of a home Bible study group. She has authored a book, "Shadow in the Rain," based on an actual murder case in Rockford, ILL, which she investigated as a journalist and became convinced the wrong man was in prison and is in prison still.  On her website, www.deniedevidence.com there is a form letter to petition the governor for a second look at his case. She sincerely hopes her  readers will click on it.

Harriet is the first place winner in the Imagine-In contest 2007, to purchase the

Ford resides in Saddlebrook, Missouri and is member of the Ozark Writers League, Sleuth's Ink and Springfield Writer's League.